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Police say Vigil admitted to double murder on video recording

By: LANCE BENZEL The Gazette

February 28, 2014Updated: April 25, 2014 at 10:20 am

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Police say a Colorado Springs man was caught on tape snickering that he gunned down his pregnant ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend outside an east-side bar - and expressing regret that he didn't kill more people while he was at it.

"I should have gone in there and shot a bunch of people. I might as well have," a man identified by authorities as Gary Glen Vigil said in a high-quality video recording made public for the first time Friday at a hearing in 4th Judicial District Court.

Prosecutors played the cell phone recording during a preliminary hearing at which Vigil, 22, was ordered held without bond at the El Paso County jail pending trial.

Vigil is scheduled to be arraigned April 24, at which time a trial will be scheduled.

The hearing marked the latest step forward in a case involving a grisly Aug. 10 double-murder outside Nancy's Lion's Den bar at Circle Drive and Platte Avenue. Shot at near point-blank range were Daniel Castaneda and Vigil's ex-girlfriend Camille Root, who was several months pregnant.

Authorities say Vigil was angered over the couple's relationship and shot the couple after a quarrel that started inside the bar and spilled into the alley.

Authorities say Vigil fled to Mexico shortly after the slayings with the help of a sister, Regina Vigil, who has since taken a plea deal for her involvement. Vigil surrendered to U.S. authorities in December and was extradited to Colorado.

Vigil was linked to the crimes by witnesses who told police that on the day of the killings, he had been actively seeking Castaneda and invited him to come to the bar for a confrontation.

After the shootings, at least one bar patron saw Vigil running from the scene.

Police later found part of a .40-cal. semiautomatic pistol in a nearby trash receptacle a pistol barrel that had been tossed onto a roof.

The video that Judge Timothy J. Schutz said could "arguably be characterized as a confession" was found on a cellphone seized from a man making an illegal border crossing into the U.S. last August, according to Colorado Springs police detective Derek Graham.

The brief footage appears to have been shot surreptitiously and shows a man identified by authorities as Vigil boasting about the crimes and mentioning that his aunt owns the bar where the killing occurred and that his cousin works as a server there. Vigil also says he "should have" killed Root's sister and other members of her family.

Nancy McBeth, owner of Nancy's Lion's Den, denied she is related to Vigil and disputed witness accounts that Vigil and the victims were inside her bar.

Relatives of Root and Castaneda held hands and quietly wept as authorities detailed the brutal crimes.

Wearing an orange jail jumpsuit, the heavily tattooed Vigil kept his head on the defense table while the video clip was played in court.